Every so often a film appears (usually from the United States, although the Mad Max series from Australia had a worldwide impact in the 1980s) that gets the popular commentators talking about the links between spirituality, religion and cinema.  It happened in the late 1990s with The Matrix.

 Even classical directors like Poland’s Krzysztof Zanussi declared that everybody should see The Matrix for its philosophical/transcendent dimensions.  The two sequels reinforced this opinion, especially with the range of references to religious traditions and mythologies, including Christianity.  Neo was the One, a saviour who died and rose again and was loved back into life…

While not recommending Ghost Rider to all but the stalwart fans of films based on comic books, especially the Marvel comics, Superman, X-Men and Daredevil, it must be said that there is a lot of religious language and symbolism here that might well offer discussion points for younger audiences, as well as adults, who like to see the links between spiritual values and the movies.

Ghost Rider has been filmed by Mark Steven Johnson (who made Daredevil, a moderately successful venture but one which also had Catholic resonances) and no effort has been spared with top of the range special effects and computer work.  Since the hero rides a motor bike, the effects enhance his carnival leaps through fire, over vehicles and helicopters.  When he becomes the Ghost Rider (a superhuman being topped with an immense burning skull) his bike is aflame, leaving fire trails, not dust, in its wake.  Ghost Rider is strong on contemporary thrills.  (It should be added that its US box-office opening weekend in February 2007 was over $44,000.000, a sum which many contemporary films struggle to reach in total.)

Ghost Rider is a pop version of the Faust story.  Mephistopheles appears in the form of the icon of bike riders, Easy Rider’s Peter Fonda.  He buys the soul of the teenage stunt rider John Blaze (who grows up into Nicolas Cage) in exchange for his father’s recovery from terminal cancer.  Needless to say, John does not realise what he is doing.  And his motives were kind.  Mephistopheles, however, puts him on hold until he is an adult in order to do the devil’s work.

Meantime, the son of Mephistopheles (a malevolent Wes Bentley) is doing a Lucifer turn and raising demons to help him take over the world.  As he absorbs the souls of these damned, he says, ‘My name is Legion for we are many’.  It is time for John to follow in the footsteps of a legend of the American west, that of the Ghost Rider who defied Mephistopheles and stole his contract for the whole population of a town.

Already, the film raises issues of good and evil, the devil and hell and selling one’s soul – though John realises that the devil has bought his soul, ‘but not my spirit’.  There is a lot of talk about God giving people second chances especially if their motivations were good.

One sequence that is religiously arresting is the Ghost Rider’s saving a young woman from a mugger.  He judges that the man is evil and, gazing into this man’s eyes with his own fiery skull, he enables the sinner to see and experience all the hurt he has inflicted on innocent people.  This look is referred to as ‘The Penance Gaze’.  It is a flame-filled purgatorial experience – and would be useful in discussions as an image of the need for purgation and atonement which we call Purgatory.  Eventually, Black Heart (Mephistopheles’ son) also experiences this purging but opts for Hell.

All of this is narrated solemnly by that rugged icon of so many westerns, Sam Elliott.  Here, he plays the Caretaker of a cemetery (with cross on a chain) who explains to John and to us the role of legends: that we interpret and understand events that are beyond us through legend.  He himself is part of the legend and there is a dramatic journey with the caretaker and John riding fiery horses and bikes to their destiny.

Eva Mendes is a TV reporter of the more proactive Lois Lane variety.

There is quite a deal more explicit religious language and references to the Gospels.  The first Vatican Council is not quoted so often these years.  However, it suggested back in pre-cinema days that to understand revelation and the teaching of the Church, one of the most important means was by way of analogies.  They may not have had analogies like Ghost Rider in mind.  But, in the context of popular culture, they work.

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